Today I’m delighted to feature M/M romance author Jack Strange. I was fortunate to meet Jack at the Love Stories etc, event in Manchester last month and was thrilled when he agreed to take part. If M/M romance is what you’re looking for – with heart and warmth, spice and humour – then make Jack your next read. If you’ve never read M/M romance then don’t be shy to try it. Love is love after all and watching two people fall for each other and have their happy ending shouldn’t be gender specific. I’m already invested in the fact that Jack also has a cowboy romance in the pipeline so I’ll be keeping an eye out for that one.
Jack Strange is a writer living in the Welsh countryside,who also writes as J. S. Strange. He reads tarot cards, is a writing coach connecting writers to the spirit of their writing, and practices astrology.
Over to Jack :
Which five pieces of music/songs would you include in the soundtrack to your life and why?
This is a fun question, and really hard to choose. Maybe I’ll try and pick some from different stages in my life. Throughout it all, though, is Britney. Always Britney.
My first song would be Who Do You Think You Are by The Spice Girls. It was a song I was singing and dancing to before I could talk when I was a kid, according to my mum. I guess it summed up the rest of my music taste!
I’d then choose any Girls Aloud song. They were my Spice Girls growing up, and seeing them again on their comeback tour in 2024 was everything to me.
After that, I’d choose Superficial by Heidi Montag. I remember being bullied throughout school, and songs like Superficial made me feel stronger and sassier, like I could take on anything.
I’d then choose Kesha’s Animal / Cannibal album. That was the soundtrack to my party days, and I again embodied a lot of Kesha’s energy.
Finally, I’d choose something like the Brat album by Charli XCX. Embodying that ‘I am who I am’ energy.
What five things (apart from family and friends) would you find it hard to live without.
I’d find it hard to live without my cats, and cats in general. I have always had cats in my life, and think I always will.
Books, too, of course. I love books and always have. I find comfort in being surrounded by them, and love nothing more than to escape into a good book.
Pop music would be another.
Educational opportunities would be my fourth – I love to study and always love to learn something new.
Travel would be my final. Always like to see and experience something new.
Give five pieces of advice to your younger self?
Chill out, because things start to happen.
You make sense of those feelings.
Keep doing what you’re doing.
Go find an actual bookshop.
It will be alright.
Tell us five things that most people don’t know about you
I am very loosely related to Rudyard Kipling. Very loosely related!
I have an Anne Boleyn tattoo.
I am invested in astrology and tarot, and I’m quite a spiritual person.
I’m studying to become a Creative Writing or English Literature professor – but right now I offer writing coaching sessions and workshops.
I tried – and failed – to make it as a pop star.
Tell us five things you’d still like to do or achieve.
Become a pop star!
Become full time self-employed.
Own a cosy home where I can grow my own food and live sustainably.
Write scripts for movies – and have my work turned into movies!
Open a bookshop.
Many thanks for joining me today Jack, I enjoyed learning more about you. I hope you were happy with the music choices I made. I thought you’d enjoy a Girls Aloud video from the 2024 tour to bring back even more memories. I can fully endorse the comfort of being surrounded by books, I feel the same. I’m not sure my husband does but he’s happy to go with the flow and indulge me and the growing bookshelves. I’m glad to hear that after you mentioned being bullied throughout school that your advice for your younger self included ‘it will be alright’. I hope your bullies grew up to be better adults. You do realise that you can’t say things like I have an Anne Boleyn tattoo and you’re loosely related to Rudyard Kipling because both things need more info. Like what and why for the first and how to the second – or maybe it’s just me being my nosey self! I hope you get to achieve your dreams Jack. Living sustainably in a cosy home (surrounded by books of course) sounds idyllic and an ideal place to write. It would also be the perfect escape when you get to be a popstar. If you open that bookshop, at least it’ll be safe to say, it will include Romance – something we all need in our lives be it in real life or on the page.
Jack’s Books
(NB This post features Amazon affiliate links from which I earn a very small commission on qualifying purchases)
25 Days in Athens
In the sun-soaked street of Athens, Will might find that his love story might not be the one he’s expecting…
Three years ago, Will turned down Ollie’s proposal and has regretted it ever since. Now, Ollie is marrying someone else in Greece, the very place they once dreamed of saying “I do”, and Will is invited. With only twenty-five days until the wedding, is it finally time for Will to tell Ollie he made a mistake?
But a chance encounter with his childhood friend Sam, who just happens to be impossibly handsome, complicates everything.
Against the stunning backdrop of ancient ruins and vibrant nightlife, Will must confront his past, his desires, and the true meaning of love.
Look Up, Handsome
Quinn wants to save his bookshop, the last thing he needs is to fall in love…
Hay-on-Wye’s only queer bookshop is always a hive of activity. So when it’s threatened with closure, its owner Quinn Oxford is determined to do whatever it takes to save his beloved shop.
That is until romantic novelist Noah Sage arrives in town. Gorgeous, brooding and clearly unhappy to be there, Noah is the distraction Quinn doesn’t need. Noah has a history with Hay and it’s one he’d rather not face. But when the snow leaves him stranded, he’s left with no choice.
Hay is a small town, meaning Quinn can’t help but bump into Noah wherever he goes. And as the two grow closer together, is it possible that Noah’s feelings towards Hay will thaw? Can Quinn have a real-life romance and save his beloved bookshop? Or will he need a Christmas miracle…
The Boyfriend Academy (as JS Strange)
Ganymede’s is no ordinary boarding school. Behind its spiral towers and manicured lawns, boys are forged into the men society demands – strong, obedient, perfect. Graduate, and the world is yours: a home, a career, a wife. But fail… and you’re no longer useful to society.
For Dylan Cecil it should be simple: keep his head down, survive graduation, and earn his place. But when his friend, Blake, disappears, Dylan can’t silence the questions gnawing at him, even as whispers of danger shadow the school’s gilded halls.
As June’s trials close in – eight tests that will decide who is worthy of manhood – Dylan is haunted by Blake’s absence and drawn to Roman Edwards, a boy as magnetic as he is unknowable.
In a world rebuilt on order and obedience, Dylan must decide: will he become the man the academy wants – or the man he really is?
Love is forbidden. Truth is dangerous. Survival is everything.
